


bruises

by eldritchbee



Series: Goretober 2020 [1]
Category: Hello Charlotte (Video Games)
Genre: (Its Soap), Abusive Relationships, Bruises, Bullying, Emetophobia, Gen, Goretober, Goretober 2020, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Loosely canon, Medication, Mild Gore, Murder, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:59:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26761744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbee/pseuds/eldritchbee
Summary: The next day, she wakes up with bruises. Dried blood on her face from being shoved face first into a locker and a lump on her head from the books that fell on top of her. She has to swallow one - two - three of the pills Felix gave her to calm down, to keep her from sobbing. She’s dealt with worse. But then she had Felix and she had Seth and she had that stranger who whispered in her ear and slid into her body and tore the Pythia who threatened them apart. When she woke back then she was covered in blood, hands deep in viscera, no bruises, no struggle - she’d been the butcherer instead.(Don't make me a murderer.)--Takes place between Hello Charlotte 1 & 2.For Goretober 2020 (prompt #1: bruises)
Relationships: Aiden & Charlotte Wiltshire, Anri Warhol & Charlotte Wiltshire, Bennett & Charlotte Wiltshire, Felix Honikker & Charlotte Wiltshire
Series: Goretober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950091
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	bruises

**Author's Note:**

> For Goretober 2020, instead of art a friend of mine decided to write instead. So I wanted to try too.
> 
> Loosely canon as in I changed some details here or there or some of the added stuff may contradict actual canon. The biggest one I think is Scarlett and Charlotte having contact between HC 1&2\. There's a mild mild mild super vague, probably wouldn't catch it if you didn't already play the game, hinted spoiler for HC3 in here.

_and when I have died_  
_will you use my spine_  
_to swing from tree to tree in_  
_search of places pleasing to the eye?_

* * *

She wakes up with bruises. A black eye and wrists wrung purple from the force and friction of contact, nails broken when she tried to fight back, and the rest of her saved by a can of pepper spray Felix gave her that she’s not quite sure is actually pepper spray based on the way the victim’s heads simply seemed to explode, hitting her with blood and bits of skull and brain and - 

No. Start over.

She wakes up with Magcat on her lap.

She wakes up with bruises. 

The truth today is this: _I fell. Someone tried to catch me, but they hit my eye instead. Someone else succeeded, holding tight to my wrists. Unfortunately they slipped, I broke my nails on the concrete_

Aiden dresses the open abrasions on her hands and files her nails to a perfection she knows will be ruined tomorrow. He insists on painting them as well, _just for something to do_ , and hums so softly songs she’s only heard play in the winter. It’s relaxing, it takes away the pain for just a moment, until his hands release hers and the bruises seem to burn again in a rage. _Go wash up, dear, you’ve got - ah, something… in your hair._

_Here’s your spray can back, Felix_

But it’s still half full, barely used. Felix rattles the can in front of her. For as long as she’s known him he’s always looks bored, or tired, or annoyed, but today there’s a muscle in his jaw that’s just a little too tight, and he stares too long at her hands. 

_I don’t need it anymore  
_(don’t make me a murderer)

 _I’m going to sleep._

Her classmates are fine, even if they don’t show up to school the next day. They’re fine, Anri says so, they simply moved away. It’s a coincidence, Anri says so, _and if they’re not, who cares? They were jerks anyway._ No, no, they saved me, Anri, they - but she doesn’t even open her mouth when the look on Anri’s face shuts her up, eyes sliding back down the linoleum school halls. _Buy me lunch,_ Anri says, and the conversation is over.

The next day, she wakes up with bruises. Dried blood on her face from being shoved face first into a locker and a lump on her head from the books that fell on top of her. She has to swallow one - two - three of the pills Felix gave her to calm down, to keep her from sobbing. She’s dealt with worse. But then she had Felix and she had Seth and she had that stranger who whispered in her ear and slid into her body and tore the Pythia who threatened them apart. _When she woke back then she was covered in blood, hands deep in viscera, no bruises, no struggle - she’d been the butcherer inste -  
_D O N ’ T M A K E M E A M U R D E R E R

No. One - two - three more pills. Start over.

She wakes up with Magcat on her lap.

She wakes up with bruises. 

The truth today is this: _I fell into the locker. Those people let me out_ (eventually) _and they certainly weren’t laughing when they did_ \- you were hearing things, Anri says - _I was hearing things._

Bennett walks into the bathroom that morning while she’s still washing blood ( _no, no blood this time_ ) from her hands and arms and body and - _you want me to teach you how to dig someone’s eyes out with a spoon?_ he asks cheerfully, half a bottle of soap already making work of his system. She takes it from him and dumps more onto her hands, scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing but the purple won’t fade and the blood it -

Bennett turns the sink off, puts a hand on her shoulder. When she looks up his pale eyes are more serious, more sober, than he usually is at this time of day. The smaller eyes under his left seem fixed on her.

 _Do you need me to kill someone for you?  
_(no. don’t make me a murderer.)

And then he’s back, an overexaggerated shrug and a forced laugh as he ruffles her hair. _Well! ‘Weeks In Which We Live’ is on soon, can’t miss it. Last week they ended on a cliffhanger! I’ll be taking that!_ \- the soap is gone, and she realizes she’s late for school. 

She mistakes the angle of the jump and nearly misses the cushion down on level one. Breaks her wrist instead, sees red, blacks out, and wakes up in the nurse’s office with bruises and _Anri_ standing over her looking _furious_ . _What the hell was that? What the hell was that? If Eyler wasn’t there to catch you_ -

\- the name makes her twitch -

_\- you would have died!_

Math and Physics are her best subjects, and she knows the trajectory of the cliff to school better than anyone. She was lucky (apparently) that Eyler was there to catch her. _Just a few degrees more and I could have -_

No.

Start over.

She wakes up with Anri standing over her.

She wakes up with bruises.

The truth today is: _I just miscalculated, is all. It happens sometimes!_

In the halls she passes Eyler - well rounded, smart and athletic and responsible and _terrifyingly_ _beautiful_ \- and thinks she should say something. _Thank you._ or _Why._ or -

\- but instead she hears Eyler whisper under her breath: _there’s another way. there’s another way. there’s another way._

_don’t make yourself a murderer._

\- and the words are _terrifyingly heavy_ she thinks she may have stopped breathing.

(But, no. She’s alive.

She goes home.)

She wakes up with bruises and cuts and blood and black ink from deep within her coming up through the mouth. She feels the same as when the Pythia became one with her, something dark churning under her skin. A parasite screaming in her brain. When Felix walks in on her his cool face twists into terror ( _so odd to see him so scared, isn’t it, Seth?_ ) and he drags her down to the basement where Huxley looks her over. More pills, a request for her to stay home today, her wrist reset and her wounds dressed. 

No. One more time.

One - two - three - four - swallow the pills. Smile.

_I’ll be fine. I have a test today, anyway. I’ll see you when I’m home._

_Take this with you_ , Felix says, shaking another spray can and shoving it into her bag. 

(they’re fine. her classmates are fine.) Felix, please, Felix, please, Felix, don’t make me a m u r d e -

_It’s not the same as the last one. I promise._

She hugs him goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> Song at the top is "The Spine Song" by Cake Bake Betty.


End file.
